Emerson College Top Questions

The stereotypes are accurate, yet clearly that only represents a faction of Emersonians. There are, of course, theatre dorks, your average granola people, the activists, the marketing majors...

Yes

We were all different in our high schools but now what made us all different makes us all the same. It is hard in the beginning to get used to the fact that you are so similar to people.

I would not call Emerson an indredibly progressive school, especiall in regards to the Writing and Publishing dept. for undergraduate students...incredibly conservative ideas, focused on very Western, linearly-driven narratives, very genre specific ("fiction," "non-fiction," "poetry,")...the same would go for the "artsy" stereotype. a lot of students parade around as progressive or open-minded, but in the intellectual or theoretical sense they're not very well-versed and have a very close-minded view on "the arts," usually that "art" emplies something that is entertaining. a lot of the "art" here is incredibly literal, like watching a visual display of an (oftentimes poorly written) critical/analytical essay. there are a lot of theatre majors, but i think they take themselves very seriously, and are able to transition into the job world quite well because of the internship oppertunities emerson provides. there are also a great deal of marketing/communications majors...a lot of emerson students move on to become quite successful in the buisness world, despite the notion that the school is full of "non-academics."

Oh yeah.

There is a large gay population, there are many opportunities for jobs, not hippie-like, many smokers, not only an art school (communication sciences and disorders, marketing, etc), athletics as well.

To a degree. There is a large population of artsy yuppies, as well as a large homosexual population but it's not to the extent that is believed to be true.

You will definitely see those types of people a lot. However, if you look hard enough you'll see that there are other kinds of people as well; stereotypical Emersonians are just more prevailed.

A lot of Emerson students do tend to try to stay away from typical mainstream entertainment, but not entirely. Some students genuinely like the lesser known artists and filmmakers, and some say they do to try to seem more "artsy". I definitely wouldn't say that everyone at Emerson is pretentious. Are they some pretentious, people? Yes. But where don't you find that? It may seem to happen here a lot more than elsewhere just because most students are pursuing very competitve careers and confidence is essential. I have found that it is very true that the vast majority of students have very liberal politcal views. I don't think that means that other views aren't listened to and accepted as an individual's personal opinion, though. Religion is a very personal aspect of anyone's life. I would consider myself a religious person and I have friends here that both are and aren't, or don't even know where they stand. I've never felt judged for my beliefs.

Yes, but not completely. There are tons of pretentious people at Emerson, but no matter what you'll find the people who you get along with- I'm not very pretentious and I did.